How Difficult Is It Really To Make Royal Icing Snowflakes?
Decorating By berryblondeboys Updated 29 Dec 2006 , 10:38pm by amberhoney
I want to try it, but I'm also terrified I'll work so hard just to have them all break. I had tried to make some chocolate covered leaves with marginal success, so this seems even more difficult, but I LOVE snowflakes, so I am just sooooo tempted?
I have parchment paper and wax paper and I plan to pipe on the back when they are dry and then stand them up on cupcakes... am I crazy?!?!?! How much breakage should I expect? I need 36 cupcakes!
Melissa
If you overpipe them once they're dry (turn them over first) it will make them sturdier. I've had pretty good success (low breakage) with RI, but I find I'm using melted CandyMelts more and more often. The kids seem to prefer the taste to that of RI. Add there's no mixing involved...just melt and go!
How is the breakage with the candy melts? Worse? better? Same?
Melissa
The CandyMelts don't break on me as much, though you have to be careful in warm weather...they'll melt. I just put the melted candy in a decorating bag (vital to have the candy nice and smooth with no lumps!) and use a #1 tip. The candy will harden up quickly if put in the refirgerator (NOT freezer). Then you can turn them over and repipe.
They are really not hard at all, they hold up better than you think they will. I actually had more breakage with the CT I made than with these snowflakes...LOL Just let them dry for a couple of days and you are good to go.
Very pretty - what wire did you use to hold them up like that? I was thinking of just sticking them in the frosting to stand up, but maybe that won't work?
Melissa
The crucial thing I found in my recent experiments with making snowflakes was to definately use saran wrap rather than wax paper, flip the piped snowflake over so the saran wrap is on top, and gently peel the wrap away from the snowflake, staying CLOSE to the snowflake as you peel, peeling more to the side than up.. (I had a little breakage from trying to just pin the flake down with my finger and pull the wrap upward, so that was just a technique issue.)
For piping, I printed out several snowflakes on a sheet of computer paper, taped that to a flat surface, and then taped a piece of plastic wrap stretched smoothly over the patterns.
I made those recentyl but they weren't as good looking as Beckysue's cake, I used wax paper and turned them upside down then peeled the paper off I guess next time I will try Saran Wrap if you have a steady hand they should not be very hard using a patter under the paper or plastic whatever you use there is some under the galleries, that's all I can tell you about my experience and I cna't even get my cakes smooth yet but honestly I did not find them hard at all I just need more practice
I didn't find them at all difficult and had almost no breakage. I did some piped onto wires and some not. I would recommend using tip 3 however. Anything smaller is going to make a VERY delicate snowflake that will be more likely to break. I used wax paper, let it dry overnight and did the "pull the wax paper down over the edge of the counter/table" instead of trying to peel the snowflake off of the paper. I've never used the candy melts, so I can't speak for that method. If you want to add the cake sparkles, do it immediately after piping the snowflake or it won't stick. If you stick the snowflakes directly into the buttercream icing on the cupcake, you run the risk of the grease/butter breaking down the RI...especially if you add them way ahead of time. I did this on a July 4 cake to some RI "fireworks" and they all broke off at the cake-line. I learned to push a straw into the cake and put them inside the straw!!
Wow, those look cool! I guess I'll have to search for the directions. I've been posting my creations, but have not honestly had time to read the forums for several months since school started back up...
Also, I add a few tsp of peppermint extract to my royal icing during the holidays (for use on sugar cookies, etc) and the kids REALLY like the taste. Makes the whole house smell nice too! I replace some of the water w/the extract. It does not seem to affect the stability of the royal icing either.
I agree with jeking - and I did mine the same way. I printed a pattern on paper and then put wax paper over that. Piped the snowflakes with a tip 3 (she's right, no smaller....) and then I let mine dry for several days. I "glued" the snowflakes to covered wire with more royal icing and then put them in flower spikes inside the cake.
I have used candy melts, but not for snowflakes. They would hold up better against the buttercream and taste better, but you have to be careful about them melting and I found them to be more delicate than royal decorations believe it or not.
I had a TON of breakage when I made this cake, until I learned how to remove them from the wax paper. All I did was slide them to the sharp edge of my counter, and the paper basically pulled away from my snowflakes made out of RI. There were still some breakage, but not nearly the amount I had just simply trying to peel them off the paper.
Sorry for posting that pic twice! 
Im not the greatest on the computer. I don't know about any other cakes, just that the cake I made came out of the Wilton yearbook, and the snowflake pattern was right in their pattern book for that year.
that cake is from the 2003 yearbook. The actual cake picture is on page 88, hope that helps 
glad I could help!! .. I had not even started cake decorating in 2003, so I would not of had this book or pattern book either, but in 2005 I went to my local dollar store, and there they were! Sitting pretty on a shelf calling my name for a whopping one dollar apiece!
The cake in my pics used RI snowflakes. They're really easy, though if you're scared of breakage, make extra. Good luck! 
while we're on the subject, would someone please tell me what candy melts are? I am dying to try a tiara for my niece but we don't have candy melts here in New Zealand. Are they chocolate?
Sorry did I kill the thread? still sondering what candy melts are. I would like to give snowflakes a go too!
Candy melts are little candy that are chocolate=like disks taht are easy to melt and then dry hard. They are pretty cheap. If you have almond bark (they are white and are bigger blocks (of at least an ounce each 'block" that ) can be melted for making candies/chocolates.
If that fails, do you have white chocolate chips? Or white baking chocolate?
Of coruse, you could always make royal icing.
Melissa
Here's a link for snowflake designs that you can print off. http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dstredulinsky/home.html
Thanks heaps for that Melissa. I haven't heard of anything like them here, maybe some specialty shops have them though. White chocolate seems like a good substitute. So often I am mystified by ingredients here, and even if I know what they are we work in grams, not ounces!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%
